Poem fractal

Memory

by Thomas Bailey Aldrich

11 November 1836 to 19 March 1907 (~71)

Browse poets 678
In their words

“Save us from our friends—our enemies we can guard against.”

A wry reminder that well-intentioned friends can sometimes cause the difficulties enemies cannot · Ponkapog Papers, Leaves from a Note Book (1903)

More remarks (99)

Drawing the boundary…

Read the poem Another poem

A fractal is a shape that keeps its pattern when you look closer. Coastlines, trees, shells, and weather do this. A poem can be drawn the same way.

The poem’s constant is read from the build of its lines: their length, the size of the stanzas, and the share of vowels. Poems whose constants lie closer together are built more alike. The same poem always draws the same picture. Change the length of a line, the stanza, or the vowel share, and both the number and the picture move.

Primunia is the name for the source of that order: the pattern under the pattern, already there in a tree, a shell, and a verse.

Poems nearby in the constant

A smaller distance means the lines are built more alike.

  1. Banjo Paterson · −0.4905 − 0.1020i · 0.014 away · Compare side by side
  2. Nixon Waterman · −0.4774 − 0.1095i · 0.028 away · Compare side by side
  3. Nora Hopper Chesson · −0.4746 − 0.1009i · 0.030 away · Compare side by side
  4. Emily Brontë · −0.5226 − 0.0747i · 0.032 away · Compare side by side
  5. Philip Arthur Larkin · −0.5004 − 0.1326i · 0.032 away · Compare side by side
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